The foreign representatives in Peking have been seriously alarmed at
the prospect of the action threatened by the Nanking " Government " in regard to fresh taxa- tion and interference with trade. That Government is marching to the ruin of the revenues pledged for existing loans, particularly the Salt Gabelle, which is. facing bankruptcy since its inspectorate is being abolished. In Hankow there are signs of a moderate reaction against Russian and extreme Labour influence, and Borodin is said to have left the town. (There is irony in the protec- tion of Madame Borodin in the Legation quarter of Peking from rearrest by the Chinese Government, who say she was wrongly released.) The Hankow troops are advancing in collaboration, it is said, with General Feng Yu-hsiang against _ Chiang Kai-shek, whose Nanking force is very seriously threatened if the Northern Army of Sun Chuan-fang is also ready to fall upon him. Peking is, however, now the meeting-place of representatives of Chiang Kai-shek and of Yen Hsi-shan with Marshal Chang Tso-lin. This is more likely to lead to some " arrangement " than to fighting elsewhere. In Shantung Tsinanfu seems to be quite a happy meeting-place also for the Japanese troops sent there some days ago and for the two generals Chang Chung-chang and Sun Chuan- fang, who for the moment are brothers in arms. Their troops are now warding off any advance of the Southerners. *
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